At the entrance to a Catholic church in Taipei, a Ukrainian flag, today the ultimate reference for what can happen to Taiwan. In the underground part of the site, dozens listen to a professor talk about how a telescopic sight works. Saturday morning is the day to learn how to defend yourself against China.
At Kuma Academy, co-founded in June 2021 by Cheng-Hui Ho, a calm-spoken academic with a face of few expressions, civilians prepare for a military attack, a possibility that Taiwanese have been grappling with for years, as Beijing sees the island as a rebel province and promises to take it back even with the use of force.
Despite the program’s symbol featuring a teddy bear in a bulletproof vest holding a rifle, something with a somewhat passive-aggressive tone, program participants do not learn to handle weapons. There, they receive practical courses on medical assistance in emergency cases, information on how to find shelter in Taiwan and what provisions are needed to face situations of this type.
In another module, they take notes on so-called cognitive warfare. “We are one of the countries most attacked through the manipulation of information. Here, we teach how the population can recognize fake news, carry out checks and resolve doubts”, says Ho, who studied in Europe and worked in a think tank in strategic studies on the relationship between Taiwan, China and the US before creating the program.
The highlight for this aspect of the course is due to the researcher’s bet that the greatest threat, in fact, is not a direct attack, but an information war, in which military rhetoric only serves as a form of coercion. Thus, the main strategy would be to persuade the Taiwanese to surrender, weakening the will of the population and companies to resist. “You can win without spilling blood.”
The program’s current eight monthly courses, lasting one day, should be expanded to 30 by the end of next year, thanks to a donation of US$ 19.2 million (R$ 103 million) from Robert Tsao, founder of United Microelectronics Corp, responsible for 7% of the global semiconductor market.
The generous amount lends credibility to the claim that Kuma does not receive public funds, in a somewhat curious relationship with the government. According to Ho, while Parliament and the Ministry of the Interior look favorably on the program and are even considering collaborations, the same situation does not apply to the Defense portfolio, which resists seeing such programs as the responsibility of civil society.
In the class that the report of Sheet accompanied, the audience had both men and women. That day, most of the approximately 20 students were young people, in their 20s and 30s, but the program’s co-founder says that, in general, the ages of participants are quite varied, with the oldest being 70 years old, and the youngest, an impressive 13. As the courses are not only offered in Taipei, covering other regions, Kuma has the possibility to reach different profiles of the population.
The trigger for the creation of the academy was Ho’s participation in a podcast, during which Taiwan’s lack of preparation in the perspective of a conflict was discussed. Destination of the losers of the Chinese Civil War, won by the communists in 1949, the island has not faced a scenario like this for over 70 years.
The symbol with the apparently friendly animal that gives face to the program is due to the meaning of “kuma”, a Japanese word for a type of indigenous Taiwanese black bear, “with a belly in the shape of a ‘V'”. “In other words, we hope it’s a good metaphor for a ‘V’ for victory,” says Ho.
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